A place to discuss, disagree, and vent your opinions on issues related to government, terrorism, and homeland security. This is the home of the "Stupid Awards" program.

The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) has released a report on the effect of the current conflict in terms of agricultural production for use as food in the Territory. It is an interesting read, and says, in part:

For twenty two days and nights so far, no one night witnessed any changes of the previous night or day with air activities of surveillance and bombing by helicopters and fighter-bomber F16s and war vessels. They left no stone unturned as they targeted homes of civilians, playgrounds, and public gardens! For example, in al-Nasser neighborhood, last night [17 January 2009], at least 9 homes were hit by F16s! All of it was apartments in high-rise residential buildings On Wednesday, January 14, F16 missiles landed in the Sheikh Radwan graveyard destroying 17 tombs and bringing up its dead bodies! This has put forward a question of where else they will hit, and this also makes one wonder what other places the Israeli army commanders have in mind to destroy! Gaza medical authorities announced a death toll of 1,300, including 418 child and 118 woman, 118 elderly, plus 5,500 injured. Let alone those traumatized, and panicked by the Israeli invasion. Let alone those who have not been saved or rescued and died under rubble or in the green fields! Medical doctors mentioned that hundreds of the injured will never recover and return to normal life! Hundreds will live as physically handicapped.

....Thousands of tonnes of donations in terms of food stuff, basic supplies and fuel have been coordinated to arrive to Gaza across the Rafah crossings. UNRWA stored it in the precincts of its headquarters in Gaza city; unexpectedly, all of a sudden, on January 15th the whole world was surprised and shocked when the stores were burnt during an attack by Israeli aircrafts. The whole stores were set ablaze! The whole world condemned the attack! The attacked raised the humanitarian predicament of thousands of displaced and refugee families in Gaza Strip.

As a result of the attacks, 90,000 people have fled from their homes. They have either lost their homes (4,200 completely destroyed and 5,600 damaged) by air raids, shelling and bombing, or they escaped from immediate combat zones, or they were ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate their homes! Thousands are staying with relatives or friends in what they think are safer areas inside the cities and towns. But those who have no relatives to resort to found only one place to hide; they packed themselves in UNRWA schools. Unfortunately, three of those schools where targeted by the Israeli forces; the UNRWA school in Jabalia was bombed by three shells from a tank; 67 of the refugees died in that attack, and more than 40 were injured. A third UNRWA school was hit in Beit Lahia village; at least 10 people died and dozens injured. Therefore, at the present time, 40 UNRWA schools embrace Palestinians escaping from war. In each school, there are 120 families taken care of by UNRWA which provided them with blankets and offers them three meals a day to survive. Other relief efforts are provided by other local NGOs including the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC).

Read the rest. It is a chilling story that adds much to what the media has NOT been reporting. I continue to try to find a similar report issued by a reputable Israeli group on theri damages. The UN Food & Agricultural organization (FAO) in its own report on Gaza echoes many of the same sentiments as those provided above.

News From Bangladesh published an article on Gaza, entitled Gaza : How The Peeace Quartet Led The Way To war , by Dr. Terry Lacey on Jan 28th. His major point was that “For the past year and a half, Israel with the full backing and encouragement of the Quartet of Middle East mediators (the European Union, the United States, the United Nations and Russia) as well as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and even the West Bank-based PLO, has maintained an economic blockade on the Gaza Strip”.

He explained the blockade was to persuade Gazans to depose Hamas and join the peace process, “It was paralleled by a program of accelerated development and investment in the West Bank , spearheaded by the Quartet´s emissary, Tony Blair, intended to persuade West Bankers of the benefits of peace.”

Dr. Lacey argues for a different approach to the issues surrounding Gaza, and the broader Palestinian question, and points out that different actors are required to make it happen. He points out that " It was clear many Israelis as well as Palestinians were moving against the proposed peace agreement in the mid 1990s. The region was marked by a strange fear of peace. The older generation could not cope with the prospect of a new generation coming up. Everything they understood, and their careers, were built on the institutionalized lines of conflict of yesterday, not on the qualifications needed for tomorrow. "

"The Quartet peace team in its turn became trapped in the building of an elaborate international matrix of slowly won positions that became a Holy Grail instead of just one of the options for peace. It was like building a house from the top down with no foundations. Peace has to be built on people, not on previously agreed paragraphs, guarded by a priesthood of bureaucrats. "

"The Middle East Quartet, led by the US, was propelled from negotiating, to maneuvering, to confrontation with those who did not want the peace agreement. At least not yet, and not this way. Led by President Bush the Quartet rejected the legitimacy of elections and resorted to economic warfare. Finally the supposed Israeli moderates fought a war to improve their political chances and to save a dying twin state solution, which they then buried in the bloody rubble of the Gaza Strip."

This is probably the best retrospective on the these issues in a while--a MUST READ. Take the time to read and absorb the whole story.

The Canberra Times reports an interivew with Ahmad Youssef, a senior official with Hamas, who describes how they are continuing to rearm and replace what they expended during the recent flareup in Gaza. I guess that should be expected since they have the same right to 'defend themselves' that George Bush had reserved to Israel. Seems a shame that they don't get the same discount price (i.e. free) from iIan that Israel gets from the US.

Meanwhile, theAustralian Times reports that Israeli Defense Force (IDF) troops were instructed to kill themselves or their fellow soldiers, rather than have them captured. The Israelis continue in a fiction that somehow their captured soldiers are 'kidnapped', but the effect is the same.

ISRAELI soldiers fighting in the Gaza Strip offensive this month were ordered to kill themselves rather than be captured, and if necessary to kill any Israeli soldier they saw being taken into captivity, the Yediot Achronot newspaper has reported.

"No matter what happens, no one will be kidnapped," the paper quotes one company commander telling his troops before the fighting began. "We will not have a Gilad Shalit 2."

Corporal Shalit, the Israeli soldier taken prisoner three years ago, is being held by Hamas, which is demanding the release of more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds convicted of terrorism, in exchange for his release.

The newspaper quotes similar orders given in different Israeli field units, which reportedly reflect a new army policy.

In the past, there were standing orders, known as "Hannibal mode", for firing at a vehicle taking Israeli troops into captivity to disable it and permit a rescue team to reach it, even at risk to the captive soldiers inside the vehicle. The new orders tighten those instructions, reportedly by permitting the vehicle to be blown up.

A soldier in a commando unit that operated behind Hamas lines said his unit was equipped with "special weapons". "We were instructed to use them also against any vehicle carrying a kidnapped soldier," he said.

And an Israeli company commander told the newspaper he had instructed his men to resist being taken prisoner "even if this costs you your life".

Israel's Channel Ten television station broadcast a recording of a battalion commander instructing his men just before they invaded the Gaza Strip, in which he says one of Hamas's main goals was to capture soldiers to exchange for imprisoned terrorists. "No soldier from the battalion will be kidnapped, even if that means he blows up on his own grenade together with whoever wants to take him," the commander says.

Israeli officers reported several attempts, none successful, to kidnap soldiers during the house-to-house fighting in Gaza and to take them away through tunnels.

Without being there it is clearly impossible to completely understand what is happening in Gaza, or in Sderot where the majority of the Hamas missiles have been landing. However, a few pictures are worth a lot of words, so I have selected a few for comparison of the events.

First, in Sderot where a number of Hamas missiles have been falling, including some after the cease fire was announced by Israel. These Israeli police officers take cover near a wall and fence to protect themselves from the barrage. The second photo shows Israeli mothers in a local underground bomb shelter caring for their children during the attacks. While there was damage in Sderot and other coastal towns, the people in these places had protected shelter from the attacks.

Now, in Gaza, the situation and the level of bombing effort provides considerably different results. The first Gaza picture shows an initial bombing run that aimed on a highrise target. Israel used both bombs dropped from aircraft, and high explosive shells from armored vehicles, tanks, and artillery to level whole blocks, as shown in the next photo. There are effectively no bomb shelters in Gaza, and virtually the entire infrastructure is destroyed. The third Gaza photo is a view of a main street in Raffah where extensive damage occured with large death and injury counts. Total Israeli dead -- less than 20 from all attacks. Total Palestinian dead from all attacks ---over 600, mostly women and children.

Perhaps the most incisive article on the situation in Gaza appears in the electronic edition of the Wall Street Journal today (Jan 24th). The article in theWorld Section of the WSJ, written by Moshav Tekuma, a former religious affairs specialist for the Israeli Government, is entitled How Israel helped to spawn Hamas. It discusses how Israel legitimized the early Hamas precursor Mujama Al-Islamiya as a charity, and how it evolved into Hamas as an alternative to the more secular and radical Fatah. Unfortunately, all did not come out as Israel expected. Well worth reading if you want a more balanced view of the current conflict.

Foreign Policy in Focus published an interview with Noam Chomsky on January 16th that provided some of his views on Gaza. The interview, entitled Undermining Gaza, was conducted by Sameer Dossani included the following back and forth by the two men:

DOSSANI: The Israeli government and many Israeli and U.S. officials claim that the current assault on Gaza is to put an end to the flow of Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel. But many observers claim that if that were really the case, Israel would have made much more of an effort to renew the ceasefire agreement that expired in December, which had all but stopped the rocket fire. In your opinion, what are the real motivations behind the current Israeli action?

CHOMSKY: There's a theme that goes way back to the origins of Zionism. And it's a very rational theme: "Let's delay negotiations and diplomacy as long as possible, and meanwhile we'll 'build facts on the ground.'" So Israel will create the basis for what some eventual agreement will ratify, but the more they create, the more they construct, the better the agreement will be for their purposes. Those purposes are essentially to take over everything of value in the former Palestine and to undermine what's left of the indigenous population.

His major point in this and other recent articles and interviews has been that Israel has no intention of providing the palestinians anything but the poorest of ground that they cannot possibly cultivate or use, but which, in their view, will allow them (The Israelis) to boast that they 'created' a Palestinian State. Chomsky's comments as well on Israeli attitude and US support is really illuminating.

President Obama is beginning to signal his position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but are his signals intended to go in a particular direction--perhaps the same direction as his predecessors?

Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post reports that "Thus far, Obama appears to have hewed closely to the line held by the Bush administration, among the most pro-Israel presidencies in U.S. history. But he appeared to show greater empathy for the plight of the Palestinians and offered an unusually detailed outline for securing the recent Gaza cease-fire. He also named as his envoy former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchell (D-Maine), who was seen as evenhanded by both sides when he headed a fact-finding commission in 2000-2001. "

"Nadia Hijab, senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Washington, said the "choice of Mitchell sends a clear signal that the United States is going to be back to being an honest broker and will move away from being Israel's lawyer." "

Kessler pointed out that Obama dutifully came out during the campaign as rabidly pro-Israel, as did his predecessors, but later was quoted as saying, "This is where I get to be honest, and I hope I'm not out of school here. I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you're anti-Israel, and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel. If we cannot have an honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we're not going to make progress."

So, where does he really stand? He just appointed George Mitchell as his special envoy to the Middle East. The former Senator from Maine is a paragmatic, careful thinker, who is not often given to be unbalanced in his negotiations, and the same should be expected in this situation. Other signs of change are also emerging that he is carefully shaping his policy in the Middle East.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Gaza on Tuesday, Jan 20th, and called the destruction 'heartbreaking'. He spoke to reporters outside the still-burning UN Warehouse in Gaza City that had been destroyed by the Israelis as a source of terrorist gunfire. The warehouse contained humanitarian supplies intended for the displaced residents of the city. The visit by the Secretary-general coincided with the withdrawal of Israel Defense Force (IDF) troops from the Gaza Strip.

Reporting in the LA Times, on January 20th,Ashraf Khalil also reported on Ban's visit to Sderot, an Israeli town, which had been subject to rocket attacks by Hamas. Ban called the attacks there 'appalling and unacceptable.'

Khalil also reported on the Arab economic summit in Kuwait, which generally condemned 'excessive Israeli force' and pledged nearly unanimous support for the reconstruction of Gaza. "We hold Israel responsible legally for the war crimes it committed," Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said. Moussa also acknowledged that Arab leaders were splitting into moderate and more hard-line camps. States such as Syria and Qatar, which suspended its low-level ties with Israel over the Gaza assault, pushed for stronger language and urged countries such as Egypt and Jordan to reconsider their longtime diplomatic relationships with the Jewish state, Kahalil reported.

Ha'aretz (Israel) reports in its editions today (Jan 20th) that Prime Minister Olmert "has asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for assurance that any UN investigation of the damage resulting from the war in Gaza includes the damage Palestinian-fired rockets caused in Israel's south", and Ban has agreed to do so.

"Any report must include the damage caused during the operation and in the past eight years to the communities of the south as a result of the Qassam fire," Olmert said. Olmert and Ban met yesterday, Ha'aretz reported, to "discuss the United Nations' request that an investigation team be sent to assess the damage, and include in the report any damage on Israeli towns from Hamas rockets going back eight years. This was apparently in at least partial response to a statement Ban made in which he publicly demanded a full investigation of what he called the "outrageous" Israel Defense Forces shelling of three UN buildings in the Gaza Strip, which the UN denies were being used for Hamas attacks.

What is lost in all this rhetoric is the simple fact that Israeli Mossad killings of several high-ranking Hamas leaders was the burning match that lit the fire of conflict in Gaza, however they refuse to admit it. The Israelis instead want the world to think that the Hamas rocket firings ignited the conflict. Whoever is right, the results were devastation for innocent people on both sides who happened to be in the way.

If the destruction is heartbreaking to the Secretary-general, then why not discuss the issues with Hamas, just as he does with Israel. He won't because the UN won't deal with governments they don't like even if they happen to be the wronged party. That is just plain stupid.

The Israelis declared a unilateral ceasfire in Gaza on Saturday, January17th accompanied by a major media blitz on how it WON the war. On Monday, at a hastily called press conference, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who came late last week to Washington to meet with Secrtary Rice and agree on a ceasefire, warned that if Hamas renewed their cross-border rocket fire, Israel would launch another offensive. "If Hamas fires a [rocket] at Israel, it will get slapped down again."

And what a slapping down it was. The Christian Science Monitor in its Monday Editions (1-19) listed the damages. They reported, "In Gaza Monday, Palestinians went to the site of their homes and picked at the rubble in disbelief, looking to salvage belongings. After the cease-fire went into effect, at least 100 Palestinians were found beneath the ruins, according to a print reporter allowed into Gaza. Israel has not allowed foreign journalists into Gaza during the offensive, and as of Sunday evening, has begun letting in a pool of six media representatives at a time."

"In the center of Gaza City, most ministry buildings are in tatters. Even the parliament building is destroyed. Some Palestinians who became internally displaced during the crisis are finding that they have no homes to go back to. Gazans are still finding food, fuel, and cooking gas in short supply, and many were still without electricity. A Hamas official in Gaza said 5,000 homes, 16 government buildings, and 20 mosques were destroyed, and another 20,000 houses damaged, Reuters reported. Saudi Arabia has pledged $1 billion in aid to help Gaza rebuild. Palestinians put the total cost of damage at $1.9 billion. "

The Hamas leadership announced their own ceasfire on the following day, Sunday, and gave the Israelis a week to get out of Gaza or face renewed rocket attacks. Abu Obaida, spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, told reporters for the Monitor that "only 48 Hamas fighters had been killed in the operation, a small fraction of the 500 that the Israeli military says it killed in the fighting". However, Reuters reported on figures it said were provided by Hamas that 112 Hamas fighters and 180 Hamas policemen were killed. Either way, the numbers are not close to the 'offiical' Israeli numbers, wherever they got them. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed in the fighting, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, BBC reported that 50,000 Palestinians had lost their homes, with no apparent hope for them to rebuild or return to the Gaza Strip. They also reported that the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, planned to visit Gaza on Tuesday to inspect the damage, but that his trip "could be subject to change", Israeli officials said.

The director of operations in Gaza for Unrwa, the UN Relief Agency (UNRWA), John Ging, said most important now was how to get basic supplies into the territory. "We have a big recovery operation ahead of us, reconstruction - none of it will be possible of course, on any scale, until we get crossing points open," he told the BBC. Reuters reported Monday that israel has already told the UN and others that it intendeds to closely supervise any rebuilding efforts to ensure that hamas does not benefit in any way. That reconstruction includes UN-related actions on its own missions and activities.

UNRWA was also trying hard to reopen its schools and other facilities, Mr Ging said, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have shelter. One of those schools was subject to intense Israeli bombing. The IDF claimed rockets were being fired from the school, something the UN vehemently denied.

Overall, resistence from Hamas against the invading Isradelis was light, and not what had been expected before the conflict. However, despite its losses, Hamas remains firmly in control of Gaza. Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister of Gaza, declared a "heavenly victory" Sunday in an address televised from his hideout. Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas' military wing, claimed at a news conference Monday that Hamas fighters had killed 80 Israeli soldiers and shot down four helicopters. "We did not kneel down, we did not surrender, we did not raise the white flag," he said. Throughout the fighting, the group managed to keep firing rockets and hit deeper than ever inside Israel — perhaps its main military achievement, and the fact that Hamas took on Israel as it did and kept on firing rockets during the invasion is likely to boost its image. Hamas claims its fighting strength is intact. The Israeli army called Hamas accounts "completely wrong."

The Associated Press (AP) reported that "during the fighting, Hamas sent out text messages to reporters claiming its fighters destroyed tanks and armored personnel carriers, blew up a house full of Israeli troops, and captured two soldiers. All of those things were accomplished by Hezbollah in 2006. None was true this time. Both sides have an interest in inflating the results of the Gaza fighting: Hamas wants to avoid the humiliation of appearing weak, while Israel wants to give the impression that it crushed a formidable foe."

One interesting sidelight is the actual 'war' that occured. "Whoever reads the Israeli media would think the military fought the most glorious war in its history, but that isn't accurate," said Israeli military analyst Reuven Pedatzur. "There wasn't even one battle."

It is unclear who really 'won' or 'lost' in this conflict. The Israelis will claim they did because of the genocide they inflicted on the innocent populace to teach the Hamas a lesson. The real lesson is that no nation, however they might feel oppressed, does not have the right to kill innocents. The Israelis should have learned that in WWII.

Hamas does not have clean hands either. They exercised restraint in creating their own bloodbath, preferring the court of world opinion to judge who won and who lost. They lost too many of their people in a senseless conflict that they contributed to starting. How gthey act in the future will determine how people of good will and faith will judge them.

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) killed Hamas Interior Minister Saeed Seyyam, a top Hamas leader while the IDF continued to push into the heart of Gaza City on Thursday. Israel also shelled a U.N. compound on the same day that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was visting with prime Minister Olmert to ask again that Israel agree to a ceasefire. Last week, an IDF barrage killed about 40 defenseless people, mostly children, at a U.N. school sheltering Palestinians in a refugee camp.

Meanwhile, Mussa Abu Marzuk, the Damascus-based deputy head of Hamas's executive said a Hamas delegation made an offer for a ceasefire to Egyptian authorities during talks in Cairo. Marzuk indicated that Hamas awaited Israel's response to its plan. The main points included a yearlong truce, israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and an end to blockage of the Gaza Strip, with reopening of all entry points to allow supplies to enter Gaza.

A U.N. warehouse was the latest UN structure to be hit by IDF Forces in Gaza City on Thursday. The IDF barrage is reported by the Associated Press to have wounded three Palestinians and set ablaze a warehouse with fuel and humanitarian supplies. Israel said Palestinian fighters fired from the compound where 700 refugees sought shelter - a charge the senior U.N. official in Gaza said was not true. "The public statements have yet to catch up with reality," said John Ging, the director of U.N. operations in Gaza. "There were no militants in the compound, no firing by the compound." At the U.N. General Assembly in New York, scores of nations continued to criticize Israel's invasion of Gaza.

Olmert, the Israeli PM was quoted as saying, "It is absolutely true that we were attacked from that place, but the consequences are very sad and we apologize for it."

Craig Whitlock writes in Today's (Jan 13) Washington Post that Israeli officials are now saying that they expect Hamas to continue to be a potent factor in the area. Originally expecting their defeat (much as they did with Hezbollah in Lebanon), the Israelis have now changed their tune. Whitlock writes, "The Israeli officials said their strategy was to squeeze Hamas militarily as they try to pressure the Islamist movement into a truce that would include a long-term commitment to stop firing rockets into southern Israel. Some Hamas leaders have said they are willing to cut a deal but others have pledged to continue fighting. "

"Despite public vows by Israeli politicians to destroy Hamas's military capability, Israeli officials said Tuesday that the movement had lost only a fraction of its fighters and retained a large stockpile of rockets and other armaments. A "few hundred" Hamas fighters have been killed, out of a total force of 15,000, according to a senior Israeli military official. "

"In a briefing for foreign journalists, the senior official said Hamas still has hundreds of rockets and other missiles. We do not see where they have a shortage of personnel to fight," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing intelligence matters. "

Meanwhile, the bombing on both sides continues in both Gaza and the Israeli towns nearby. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) continued its frenzied bombing runs on mostly civilian areas, and, despite UN demands, refusesw to stop. With the Israeli senior officials now admitting that Hamas has been little harmed, continued bombing appears to be more punishment for the Gazans than achievement of military objectives.

Of course, there was also nothing from the White House demanding any cessation of the bombing--being done mostly with American-supplied armament, munitions, and other equipment by the IDF, and Iranian-supplied weapons by Hamas.

It's time to look at the scoreboard thus far on the invasion of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) over the past 10 days. While the traditional world media continues to call Israel the clear victor here, is that necessarily true? Let's look at some key items.

1. Have the rockets stopped? Resounding answer here is NO. Media reports indicate that Hamas still has more than 15,000 rockets of all types available, and they are still sending them into Israel. Score 1 for Hamas, and a zero for Israel.

2. Has Hamas surrendered? Resounding answer here is NO as well. There are no indications that Hamas is even considering surrender as an option. Score 1 for Hamas and, again, a zero for Israel.

3. Has the Gaza Government fallen? Resounding answer here as well is NO. Nor does the press indicate that the people of Gaza want them out of the area, except of course, two Israeli reports I have seen that want you to believe that there is considerable dissent. Score 1 for Hamas and, again, a zero for Israel.

4. What do the casualities look like? Who is ahead? In this category, Israel seems to be leading by a wide margin. They have managed to kill or injure over 4,000 in Gaza, mostly civilians. Conversely, Hamas has killed or injured less than 50 Israelis, including the cities that have been bombed. Score 1 for Israel, and a zero for Hamas.

5. What does the public think? Here the situation is mixed. There are protests around the world demanding the cessation of hostilities in Gaza--mostly supporting the Arabs. However, pro-Israeli counter protests are quickly mounted, although their numbers are nowhere near those of the pro-arab demonstrations. One point, though. While there are pro-arab protests in Israel, and the alternative press has been hammering the Government to stop its military actions, there does not seem to be a similar wave of media support for Israel in Gaza, or, for that matter, any other arab country. No score here - a tie although it is a close call and probably should be a 1 for Hamas.

6. What does the US Currently think? This is an interesting category. Normally, it should be a slam-dunk for Israel, but Secretary of State Rice abstained on the UN resolution demanding a cease fire instead of vetoing the resolution. Apparently, she convinced the president that his private agreement with the Israeli PM to veto the document was not good international sense. The Israeli Government went crazy, and Hamas did exactly what it should have done on the announcement--said nothing. Score a big 1 for Hamas for the public relations value of Secretary Rice's vote.

I won't total these up, but i think the message is clear. Any comments?

Today's news quotes the Anti-Defamation League response to the Abstention on the resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza by both Hamas and Israel. Quoting the American israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the JTA, the Global News Service in their latest pronouncement (Read it here):

"The Anti-Defamation League also expressed "surprise" at the Bush administration's failure to veto the resolution. "At a time when Israel is engaged in defending its citizens against the brutality of Hamas terrorism, which has unleashed an outpouring of anti-Semitic rhetoric, threats and intimidation and violence in the U.S. and around the world, we expected the administration to abide by its longstanding commitment to fighting global terrorism and the scourge of anti-Semitism and Israel’s role on the front lines of that fight," the ADL said in a statement."

It amazes me constantly that anything said negatively about israeli Government actions is always considered anti-semetic. Since the Arabs are also Semites, it seems this argument, especially when applied to governmental actions, and not to religious principles is an inappropriate use of the term. Most of the demonstrations being reported are against the killing of innocent civilians, especially women and children, and not on Israel's actions against proven militants. The only real rhetoric that is spinning is from israel itself on how their war is holy and Hamas' war is nothing but dirty terrorism.

Right now, if my sense of the news is correct, it is Israel in violation of the UN Resolution, not Hamas.

o WHO concerned about the public health situation: PHC services severely restricted and vaccinations interrupted since 27 Dec.

o 10 PHC centres functioning as emergency centres.

o 4-5 hours partial power supply for all hospitals.

International Humanitarian Law requires all medical personnel and facilities be protected at all times, even during armed conflict.

Attacks on them are grave violations of International Humanitarian and Human Rights laws. Access to heath is a fundamental human right.

CASUALTIES

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH), 801 people have been killed since 27 December, including at least 85 women and 265 children. At least 3300 Palestinians have been injured, including at least 1156 children and 452 women .

WHO has not been able to independently verify these details.

There have been complaints that Israeli military have been preventing medical teams from evacuating wounded people. Israel has said it is investigating the claims.

HOSPITAL FUNCTIONING

Damage to hospitals and ambulances

The British NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP-UK) and WHO have deployed information officers at hospitals across the Gaza Strip to provide information about their situation and needs. Further information on hospitals will be provided in the next reports.

All hospitals now have five days fuel capacity for the back-up generators, after having received industrial fuel. Gaza Paediatric hospital has two days of autonomy due to its low store capacity.

Power supply was again available for 4–5 hours in all hospitals.

Bed capacity and occupancy rate

The Shifa hospital ICU was overwhelmed with all 30 beds occupied mainly due to the lack of evacuation of patients through the Rafah crossing.

REFERRALS AND EVACUATIONS OUTSIDE GAZA

No patients were referred yesterday, 8 January, and today, 9 January. The ICRC/MoH convoy bringing patients to Rafah crossing was shot at yesterday and the convoy returned to Shifa hospital. The number of patients evacuated through Rafah crossing since 27 December remains 170, most for injuries and some for chronic conditions.

The Palestinian MoH in Ramallah with WHO collaboration continues its activities from the emergency operations room to respond to the health crisis.

PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTRES

PHC services were not functioning 9 January for the weekend. The 1O PHC clinics converted to emergency evacuation centres continue to work. Only 34 of the MoH's 58 PHC centres are functioning (with major interruptions).

The U.N. Security Council called for an immediate cease-fire Thursday (Jan 8th), but Olmert ( Israeli Prime Minister) said Israel "never agreed that anyone would decide for us if it is permissible to strike at those who send bombs against our kindergartens and schools." This quote, reported in Yahoo News (Read it here) was made at the same time Israel pushed even further in Gaza, loosing Phosphorus bombs on housing areas--a violation of International law.

Meanwhile, the Israeli's moved into a village, Sheikh Ajleen, where they killed 18 people, and injured a number of others. In their only real military offinsive of the day, their air force struck at Rafah, trying to close some of the many tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border and reportedly killed 11 with more injured.

Islamic Jihad is supporting Hamas' efforts and was particularly active in Sheikh Ajleen where the first of the Israeli task groups were ambushed. As usual, the Israelis did not announce their casulaties.

This week the US Security Council passed a resolution calling for a meaningful ceasefire between Hamas and the Israelis in Gaza. Hamas, which has no international recognition as a government, opposed the resolution because it wasn't consulted. Israel indicated it would pay no attention to the resolution because it was 'not meaningful'. The US, through Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, supported the Israeli position while splitting words carefully so as not to seem that they did not support the resolution as well.

Looking at each of the positions, Hamas cannot expect consultations with a non-existing government. Governments provide services and security for their people, andwork to seek recognition and respect from other countries. True, Israel did start this latest flareup by entering Gaza and killing some Hamas leaders. Hamas, however, did not need to simply spray Israel with rockets as a response. Instead, it could have carefully targeted some government building or military base and made the same point. More importantly, they have no established means to really govern their part of the world. Not sure that their response was arrogant--given the breaches to their security by Israel, but they certainly did NOT exhibit good sense.

Israel responded to the rockets with their own indiscriminate shelling, killing now over 800 people, with over 3000 casualties, mostly civilians, particularly the young. They bombed two schools and one hospital, along with a UN compound in their 'precision' attacks. Israel had to have expected a response from Hamas for its killings of their leaders. They would have world opinion more in their favor had they explained their attacks, defended them openly, and publicly said that further retribution would follow on these same level leaders. Instead, they opted to simply start killing innocent people in precision bombing that could have been avoided. Perhaps it is just that the Hamas gunners and missle operators have less skill than the Israelis, but the disproportionate killing seems unjustified. Total lack of good sense in tossing aide the UN Resolution, arrogance in their reasoned and organized killing of innocent civilians, and downright stupidity in not containing the situation.

What is there to say about the US? This administration has completely lost any hope or possibility of making a meaningful contribution to MIddle East Peace. Bush should go down in history as the man that lost a real opportunity by his stubborn determination to punish the arab/muslim world rather than try to move it toward more humanistic goals and aspirations. That represents immense arrogance, intense stupidity, and a complete lack of common sense for a so-called 'world power'.

The statement by the president-elect today that he intended to deal quickly and decisively on the Middle East after January 20th is a noble aim. In this case, however, unlike his other campaign promises which he has mostly disavowed, Obama needs to REALLY make this a priority action. People are dying, and we need to stop this sense of absolute adherence to whatever Israel decides it wants to do.

The US needs to return to a status as an honest broker of peace--something that has not really happened since the Carter Administration. An even-handed, and less free distribution of arms and intelligence to Israel--combined with pressure on Europe to stop selling to Iran, and thence to Hamas, can make a real difference. Obama just needs to WANT to make a difference.

Can he do it in the face of the Israel-America Lobby? probably not completely, but at least he can try. I, for one, hope he does.

The situation in Gaza is getting extreme, as the Israelis see a terrorist behind every rock and wall. While I agree that continuing rocket attacks by Hamas are not helpful, let's look at the broader picture here.

First, Intifada (If we want to see the current actions as part of the ongoing Intifada) was started following the arrival of Ariel Sharon into what the arabs considered holy space on the Temple Mount. There were no rockets then, but Sharon was running for Prime Minister and wanted a public embarassment for the arabs as a means to his election. He got what he wanted and there has been no peace since.

Second, Hamas leadership was elected by popular vote of the Palestinians who still wait for the independent country they were promised following WWII. Instead, we got Israel. The Israeli Government (Mostly imports from Europe) quickly started their own scorched earth process to remove the native Palestinians and give the land to their own. The US and the UN supported that process, and four wars were the result. The US refuses to recognize Hamas. It perfers to recognize only those democratic elections where their desired winner comes out on top. It should be pointed out that the major international organizations have all admitted that the election in Palestine was well-conducted and fair. Only Bush and his syncophants refuse to accept the result.

Third, even if Hamas does receive arms from Iran or elsewhere, what difference is there from the constant shipments that the US provides to Israel. Would it not be better to get an agreement not to give ANYONE arms and let the two groups, on their own, decide the winner without US intelligence or support.

Fourth, Israel is currently bombing indiscriminately--claiming that every target--including the schools and hospitals, are firing rockets at Israeli towns. The killing is grossly disproportionate. In fact, if you listened without knowing the locale, you might think you are listening to an old broadcast about the Warsaw Ghetto killings in WWII.

Finally, there is Bush, our president, who tells it like it. After all, he says, the Israelis are just defending themselves. But then, we can never be sure if he lives in reality. The real question is does the shelling that is massively killing respond to the missiles that seem to be killing no one, and are just a nuisance. Probably not, but then everything the Israelis do--in Bush's eyes-- is right, and everything the arabs do is wrong. What's wrong with killing a few arabs to protect our ally?

It's time the UN stopped the foolishness. If the US can veto in the Security COuncil, then perhaps a resolution in the General Assembly is in order.

While I have normally tried to have an even-handed approach to Palestine & Israel, this current phase of their seemingly endless conflict seems to tilt toward Hamas as the one to blame for destroying the truce.

Truces come and go in the Middle East. This one seemed for a time to be more effective than most. People were actually able to get on with their lives. Then, The US election heated up, and it looked like Obama would be elected. In my view, that was the pivotal circumstance that started Hamas on the road to killing the truce, and creating noise in Gaza in the hopes that the new president would be less strident than Bush on the continuing strife.

Well, I think that they have probably guessed wrong. While Barack Obama, the president-elect has no so far spoken out directly, his press people have, and what they are saying cannot be making Hamas happy. Hamas needs to stop the rocket attacks before even more people are killed senselessly. So far they have nearly 350 killed and over 1700 wounded against 5 for Israel. Those just don't seem like good odds to me.

The latest 'new' peace initiative brought forth by the Bush administration has all the earmarks of the others proposed over the last several years. First, Israel gets everything it wants, in both territory and aid. Second, the Palestinians (at least those that the Bush administration considers 'good' Palestinians, will acknowledge Israel, and take what they can get whether they like it or not, with probably little real aid. Of course, the rest of the nations in the area will be expected to support the US position.

Regretably, only the US thinks this plan is worth considering. Bush doesn't even intend to conduct negotiations himself--leaving that task to Condoleeza Rice at State. perhaps he has learned, like Clinton before him, that his presence doesn't make for any real success.

The rest of the world has mixedemotions. Setting the background, an excellent article by Phyllis Bennis of the Transnational Institute's Institute of Policy studies provides a great background on the problem and potential solutions. in her article, she says, "Pretty much no one is taking it seriously. Even mainstream analysts usually willing to take Bush administration Middle East initiatives at face value are rolling their collective eyes. "

"The New York Times' senior correspondent Steven Erlanger immediately acknowledged that Bush's latest "vision," a U.S.-Israeli-Fatah alliance creating a model Palestine in the West Bank designed to snub the isolated "Hamastan" in Gaza, is not a "vision shared by other American allies or other members of the so-called quartet - Russia, the European Union and the United Nations." (Yes even the Times said "so-called" quartet.) It is also "doubtful that the Saudis share Mr. Bush's analysis, since they have been urging Hamas and Fatah to get back together again?" A different Times article included a succinct headline identifying the real reason for the latest initiative: "Mired in Iraq, U.S. Seeks to Begin Building a Palestinian State."

As Bennis continued, "The "plan," such as it is, is painfully familiar, only narrower and more constrained than ever before. The centerpiece is a call for a new regional peace conference in the fall, to be led not by Bush himself but by his secretary of state. Bush says it will include Israel, the Palestinians, and "their neighbors in the region." But the only Palestinians allowed to participate will be the Abbas-led Fatah-controlled sector of the Palestinian Authority operating in the West Bank; the democratically elected Hamas-led Palestinian parliament and its government in Gaza will be excluded. It may include some neighboring governments, but only those who recognize Israel's "right to exist." Regional powers like Syria and Iran would of course be excluded, but it is not clear that even Jordan and Egypt, which maintain official diplomatic ties with Israel, let alone Saudi Arabia which doesn't, would publicly accept Israel's "right" to have expelled Palestinians to create an exclusive Jewish state. Overall, it's not likely to be much of a conference." Read the entire article here.

The Plan itself is similar to others the administration has presented, either by itself, or with partners, such as the UN, EU, and Russia last May, but with some new twists. Now that Fatah has broken with hamasa and expelled them from the Palestinian government-in-waiting, Bush is willing to try again. The real question is whether or not it will work. After all, the US is not exactly an 'honest broker' here, having defended Israel during the years, and espcially over it most recent slaughters in both the West Bank/Gaza, and in Lebanon. It will be hard now to establish any leverage, never mind credence in the minds of the main protagonists that the US wants and fair and equal peace.

In yet another twist to the Palestinian Peace Initiative, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert suggested today that the proposal might be a start of enotiations -- that is, as long as the Refugee issue, the status of Jerusalem, and other critical parts of the resolution are off the table.

The same country that just got their ass kicked by a group of irregulars in Lebanon still thinks that it rules the world. In the case of the refugees, Israel would not accept these back, as Voice of America reports, because allowing millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to their former homes in Israel would flood the country with millions of hostile Palestinians, and that would be 'national suicide. ' Of course, the Palestinians have the prior right to the land, but that is irrelevent since Israel has a UN resolution that gives the land to them.

The same is true of withdrawl to the 1967 borders--another key Arab requirement--since that would force Israel to eliminate their illegal settlements on the land they stole from the Palestinians. Instead, the Israeli Government sees the Arab proposal as simply a 'start' to engotiations--the same stance they have had for years, and which is supported by the US.

From the reports coming from the just-ended Arab Summit, it appears that the US is continuing to isolate itself from even its staunchest allies, such as Saudi Arabia, with its attitude of 'Israel at all costs'. King Abdullah, for one, was clearly not in any mood to walk in lockstep with Condoleeza Rice, the US Secretary of State, but rather seemed to be upset that his own 2002 peace initiative was suddenly being usurped by the US as its own proposal. The US has yet to demand face-to-face, substantive negotiations from Israel, prefering to keep those talks on a 'concurrent basis' with her brand of shuttle dimplomacy. The attempt is clearly not working.

Time reports today on the results of the Arab Summit in its online news, as does the LA Times. In the early Times news, they quoted the Saudi Foreign Minister saying, "Whenever Arabs come up with clear, frank and transparent decisions toward peace, [Israel] rejects them," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal said. "This [approach] does not show a country that wants peace." Israeli Foriegn Minister Shimon Peres rejected the Arab view, calling the resolutions 'preconditions' to negotiations.'

"The problem is that the U.S. is like a ship with no anchor," says an Arab diplomat. "If it took a clear position, it could move people around that position. But because it doesn't, it is just getting pulled in many directions." Others attending the conference provided similar statements.

Saudi-U.S. differences are particularly acute in their opposition to involving Hamas in any part of an eventual agreeeemtn, preferring that any such government be boyvotted. The Summit endorsed the Mecca Agreement, under which Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to establishment of a 'national unity' government as a beginning to the end of Palestinian infighting. The Saudis are convinced that peace negotiations can only succeed if Hamas can be drawn into the process.

"The U.S. is a prisoner of contradictions of its own making," the Arab diplomats adds. "They shouted 'democracy, democracy, democracy,' and then ended up with Hamas, who they refuse to deal with because they are terrorists." That statment is the real crux of the issue, gradually isolating the US from it normal alliers among the moderate states of the Middle East.

Among the remaining issues to be resolved between Israel and the Palestinians are the return of displaced Palestinians to their lands seized by Israel, and the inclusion of East Jerusalem in the eventual Palestinian State, both rejected by Israel. It was the question of Jerusalem that ignited the Second Intifada, after Israeli Minister Ariel Sharon took Israeli troops into the Temple Mount, a major blasphemy to the Islamist world, claiming then that the Israeli's had an 'equal right to access.' The site is revered by both the Jews and Arabs as a particularly holy place, since it represents the site of the Original Temple, built by David and Solomon, and also has the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place in Islam.

As the US continues to be isolated from the eventual peace process, and be sidelined as simply a supporter of Israel, look to the moderate Arab states to increasingly exert a greater role in the negoatiation process, whether the US agrees or not.

Over the past couple of days, the press has been reporting that Condoleeza Rice, the US Secretary of State, is making her 10th visit to the Middle East to try to restart the discussions on peace in the area. She invited Egypt, Saudi Arabia, The United Emirates, and Jordan to sit and discuss the issues involved.

Unfortunately, the list she did not invite--Syria, Lebanon, the PLO, and Iran--are the real players who can, if they choose, make peace. The US, however, is still slapping them on the hands like a stern mother trying to bring them into line, so they can get out of the corner. When will we begin to realize that is not the way to deal with other countries?

In a great development, Prime Minister Olmert of Israel has now agreed to meet every two weeks with the Palestinians, Reuters reported in today's news briefs. The briefs reported on a press conference by a senior Israeli official. "The issues would be security, humanitarian and the political horizon," the senior official said, the latter term a loose reference to a U.S.-backed vision of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

"Political horizon is not about specifics," the official said, appearing to rule out any discussion soon on core issues such as the future of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees. The parties have at least made a start--something the US still thinks it can do with other parties.

Their meeting with Rice present did not go well, according to incoming reports. President Abbas accused Rice of coming to the table only with Israeli demands, and not presenting any of the needs of the Palestinians. She got no support from the Israeli's either. Perhaps they should be left to their own to solve problems, instead of bringing in the 'big stick.'

Originally, Rice had proposed separate, simultaneous talks with both Israel and the PLO, but this overture was rebuffed, according to news reports. The Belfast Times and other news sources reported on the issue in its early editions yesterday, and indicated that neither side was enthused about her suggestions.

The US, over the last several years, has poisoned its welcome in the region, primarily for its unaltering support of Israel, and its overly harsh treatment of the Palestinian people. The ultimate aims of the Palestinians will only be resolved through direct discussions and agreements with Israel, agreements that might provide some degree of return of Palestinian lands appropriated by the UN, and or seized by Israel over the last 50 years. The Palestinians, in turn, mst agree to live peacefully on their land, and stop the terrorism.

Fighting continued among the Fatah and Hamas factions of the Palestinian community over the past 24 hours, and the real aims became even more clouded as the most rabid among them took to the streets with random violence. This photo, provided by the Associated press, shows an auto being burned by Fatah in the mistaken belief that it was a Hamas vehicle. Actually, it was a vehicle belonging to some mourners attending a funeral of Fatah killed in previous violence. The Canadian TV Service (CTV) reported on that episode in yesterday's news.

Much of the current violence is in response to the recent call by Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for early elections to try and break the deadlock between his PNA and the Hamas-led government. Forbes, in its current editions, calls the Abbas move very dangerous, and possibly a good move for Israel, since the lack of consensus could split the PNA into two groups, each having control over part of the Palestinian landscape. The Israelis have already made several overtures, including the unfreezing of tax payments to the Abbas Government, preventing those funds from being used by Hamas.

Reuters is reporting in today's editions that Abbas has indicated he would like to meet with Israeli PM Olmert by year-end. That leaves little time, but might be possible. Olmert had previosly expressed interest in such a meeting.

Al-Jazeera is reporting an attack on the Palestinian Foreign Minister's residence in Gaza. Mahmoud al_Zahar, a member of the Hamas Government was not injured, and his own bodyguards fought the intruders, thought to be members of local group, and not Fatah. There was other fighting today between the two groups, fatah and Hamas, in gaza and especially around nablus, although both sides continues to say they are keeping the truce that issupposedly in place.

All of this fighting does not bode well for elections, at least meaningful elections in the near term. Neither side will probably accept the result. Hamas came to power with great promises of improvements that have generally not been fulfilled. However, the Abbas Presidentcy has also produced little, with the area controled by the PNA generally stangnant, needing money and other resources to really bring about some for of meaningful truce. The Israelis know that, and by releasing tax funds while getting the Egyptians to prevent funds from coming in to support Hamas, they may succeed in driving a deeper wedge between the two factions. Whatever the result, they are a long way from forging a government that can truly govern.

Six ministers in the cabinet of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora resigned during the weekend, bringing yet another sharp turn to events there. Resignations included two Hisbollah members and two from the Amal movement, France Presse reported. Hizbollah's aim in to ensure a 'blocking majority' in the cabinet, either through direct appoinments or through those others they can control on critical votes. Hizbollah has a sizeable minority in the Lebanese Parliament Nasrallah, the Hizbollah leader had previously suggested that he would bring his followers to the streets to gain ascendency in the Lebanese Government. The entire story is reported today in SFGate.com.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the poorly patrolled boundary between Lebanon and Israel, ABC News is reporting that Hamas has tentatively agreed to an International Peace Conference. It took this step after the Arab League, and other bodies, voted to end their blockage of money and other resources to the Palestinian Authority after the latest Israeli massacre.

Foreign Minister Zahar's call for a conference to discuss all of the issues involved, was immediately dismissed by the Israeli Government, who continue to demand recognition for Israel, renouce violence, and agree to abide by current Palestinian-Israeli agreements. Zahar made the proposal as Prime Minister Olmert was enroute to Washington for discussions with the Bush Government.

In other news in Gaza, Hamas and Fatah are close to an agreement on a new primie minister for the Palestinian Authority. Ismail Haniya, the current Hamas PM, has agreed to step aside should a compromise candidate be found. it now appears that Mohammed Shubair is now the leading candidate, Times Online reports in todays postings. Mr Shubair, 60, is a US-educated former President of the Islamic University of Gaza, a Hamas stronghold. Born in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, he studied Pharmacology at Egypt's Alexandria University before obtaining a PhD in Microbiology at West Virginia University.

The latest Israeli apology over the most recent 'aiming error' at Beit Hanoun has all the usual kind words, this time from Daniel Carmon, Israeli envoy at the UN. In an article reported by Reuters, Daniel Carmon said that Israel was "deeply saddened" by it and doing its utmost to avoid a repetition.

"Although the Palestinian civilians killed in this incident may have been killed by Israeli fire, they are in fact the victims of Hamas terrorism," Carmon said, referring to the militant movement heading the elected Palestinian government.

"If Palestinian terror did not continue to assault Israelis, if Qassam rockets stopped sailing out of Gaza into Israel, the incident in Beit Hanoun would never have happened," he said.

If you believe the Israeli diatribes, they are never responsible for anything. Here they only missed a target by over 5 miles because Hamas was being being mean to them, and shelling the Israeli countryside. Net deaths so far: 18.

Of course there have been many previous incidents, some call them massacres, where the Israeli Army rains down artillery fire in the middle of the night and kills families in their beds. Of course, these people were, moments earlier, if you believe the Israeli line, firing rockets from their huts at Israel. The US nods their heads in acceptance, and the Israelis consider the matter closed.

They do usually say they will conduct an investigation, and a report is eventually issued that exonerates their soldiers, but that is simply whitewash which no one, other than the Israeli Government actually believes.

Most of the blame for these incidents lies with the incompetance of the Israeli Army, but much more responsbility lies with BOTH the Israeli and US Governments, who condone unnecessary and brutal murder in any circumstance. I do not absolve those among the Palestinians who commit horrific acts, but they are fighting to get their land back, stolen from them in 1947 as Europe and America tried to atone for their anti-semitism, which supported and encouraged the Holocaust.

Israeli tank fire killed 18, mostly women and children, in the small village of Beit Hanoun on November 7th. The Israeli's claimed that their week-long incursion into the village weas to stop rocket intyo Israel from Gaza. The first reports, according to the BBC claimed 18 deaths when a single home was bombed by the Israelis.

The Palestinian Authority, and its constituent members quickly, and unaimously called for reprisals on Israel. Former Authority Foreign Minister Dr. Saeb Erekat, quickly called a war crime, and the Israeli Chapter of Amnesty International conceded that it probably broke international law, in a report from Y-Net News, an Israeli media outlet.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke of a "horrible and ugly massacre" and said that, while he condemned rocket attacks on Israel, they did not justify such harsh military action. His comments qwere carried by Reuters early this morning.

Khaled Meshaal, leader of the governing Islamic militant group Hamas, urged retaliation. Hamas declared a partial truce in March 2005, which expired at the end of last year. It has not carried out a suicide bombing in Israel since 2004. "There must be a roaring reaction so that we avenge all those vicitms," Mashaal said.

"All Palestinian groups are urged to activate resistance despite the difficult situation on the ground. Our confidence in our military wing to respond is great," said Meshaal, who is based in Damascus.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Government issued the usual apology, and suggested it might provide aid to those injured, the AP reported. Israel claims it has stopped atrillery and tank attacks while the circumstances are being investigated.

Sheikh Nafez Azzam, a leader of the Islamic Jihad, said “The massacre in Beit Hanoun is an intentional act aimed at bringing the members of the town to emigrate from it.”

Azzam called on the Palestinian organizations to respond to the Israeli offensive. His called joined those by top Hamas leaders, including Khaled Mashaal, who called for the resumption of suicide bombings in Israel.

Palestinian Authority spokesperson Dr. Ghazi Hamad declared that Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth. Hamad, considered a relatively moderate Hamas leaders, added: “This is not a country of humans. These are animals and a bunch of gangs, and this nation must be wiped off the face of the earth.”

The al-Quds Brigades, armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, threatened “earth-shattering reveng attacks. We will avenge the death of the Beit Hanoun victims.” The Palestinian Authority declared an official three-day mourning period in protest of the IDF attack. The Palestinian government assembled for an emergency meeting following the strike.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh immediately called on the United Nations Security Council to convene an emergency meeting. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also condemned the IDF strike, referring to it as "a horrible massacre." Abbas joined Haniyeh's call to convene an emergency meeting at the Security Council.

Some sources have indicated that the actual target was some miles away, and that the Israeli artillery were 'mis-directed.'

Israel police on Monday detained the Jerusalem bureau chief of the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera, for the second time in as many days, the journalist said.

Walid Al Omari was first taken into custody on Sunday along with the Israel crew of the Qatar-based satellite Arab TV station for a real-time broadcast of a Hizbullah Katyusha attack on Haifa, which disclosed the area of the rocket attack, in violation of Israeli military censorship guidelines.

Eight people were killed and dozens were wounded in the mid-morning attack, the most lethal Hizbullah rocket attack since Israel's withdrawal from South Lebanon six years ago.

Military censorship rules ban real-time reporting on the exact location of rocket hits, so as not to help the Lebanese-based Shi'ite terror group refine future attacks.

The longstanding security regulations have been accepted by Al Jazeera when they opened their office in Israel.

Al-Jazeera said Sunday that Israeli authorities ordered its team away from Haifa's seafront oil refinery after it broadcast live footage from the area shortly after the rockets fell around the city, but the TV station denied breaking the law.

"Al-Jazeera hereby expresses its utmost disapproval and strong denunciation of the Israeli authorities obstruction of its coverage of the conflict and reiterates its adherence to internationally recognized professional journalistic standards," the station saidin a press release Monday.

"The only difference between us and the rest (of the journalists) is that there are people who want to make it difficult for us to do our work after all the incitement against us," Al Omari told Israel Radio as he was being taken into custody in northern Israel.

Police said Sunday that the Al Jazeera journalists were questioned about the real-time Katyusha filming incident, and were warned not to do so again.

Israeli security officials have repeatedly accused the pan-Arab TV station of broadcasting ultra-sensitive security locations that could be used by Hizbullah to pinpoint targets for a future attack.

Two days of dizzying escalation, and there can be no illusions: Israel is at war.

A tactical failure by the IDF on the Gaza border barely two weeks ago prompted a drastic escalation on that front. Wednesday's still-graver tactical blow in the North has now led to a confrontation affecting immense numbers of civilians on either side of the Lebanese border, with the potential to impact other nations as well.

There are those who have branded this latest conflict a continuation of Israel's War of Independence, and there is no little truth in the assertion. On both of the fronts on which Israel has been drawn into heavy fighting, its enemies can make no legitimate claim to be pursuing a territorial dispute: as of last summer, Israel relinquished its hold on the Gaza Strip; in Lebanon, it pulled back to the UN-certified international border six years ago.

Except that, in both cases, the Jewish state's assailants are indeed pursuing a territorial ambition - to unseat Israel from its own sovereign lands.

Israel has watched Hizbullah build up its offensive capability in the years since the security zone was dismantled - watched it, ever bolder, establishing its positions up against the border fence and saw it developing its missile capability - and chose not to act. That stance was misinterpreted as weakness.

Wednesday morning's cross-border attack, complete with the barrage of shelling and rocket fire that served as cover, highlighted the IDF's intolerable absence of room for maneuver in such circumstances. And an Israeli government with a defense minister who had genuinely hoped to oversee a return to the peace path was obligated to militarily "change the rules of the game."

Hizbullah is a wily and well-prepared enemy, all-too-demonstrably capable of wreaking a degree of havoc in northern Israel and beyond, and the goal of dismantling its offensive capacity will not be easily achieved. Thursday's air onslaught certainly impacted Lebanon's civilian infrastructure; it is less clear how deeply Hizbullah was harmed.

Twenty three Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours as Israel stepped up its offensive on Gaza, reoccupying land evacuated last year and carrying out a series of deadly air strikes, BBC reported.

Israel began an extensive offensive in Gaza - its biggest military operation in a year - claiming that it’s aimed at releasing Cpl Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian resistance groups on June 25, and stopping Palestinian fighters from firing rockets into Israel.

In a major escalation of the conflict, Israeli troops entered northern Gaza yesterday to create a buffer zone in the area, raising the possibility of an extended military presence in the area, despite Israeli officials’ claims that they don’t plan to re-occupy the strip.

Two Kassam rockets fell on Sderot on Friday afternoon. One of the Kassams fell in the city's central market, wounding seven. Three people were hit by shrapnel from the rocket, while four were in shock.

The second rocket landed in an empty soccer field.

Three of the wounded were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital.

Earlier, IDF forces on Friday killed Tamr Kandil, a senior operative in the military wing of Fatah, in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus. Kandil, 22, of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, was involved in several attempts to send suicide bombers into Israel, as well as several shooting attacks in the area.

IDF sources reported that a Paratrooper battalion surrounded the house where Kandil was hiding. According to the report, shots were fired from the house, and IDF soldiers opened fire in response, killing Kandil. There were no IDF casualties in the exchange of fire.

On Friday morning, an armed Palestinian opened fire on an IDF force operating in northern Gaza. The Palestinian was killed in the ensuing exchange of fire.

Earlier, an anti-tank missile was fired at IDF forces in the al-Atatra neighborhood of the northern Gaza Strip on Friday morning.

The missile missed and hit a Palestinian house nearby. No IDF injuries were reported.

Also Friday, the IAF struck a terror cell near Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Palestinian sources reported that one terror operative was killed and three others wounded in the strike.

Israel announced today that its commanders were authorized to enter Gaza after a rocket attack hit an orchard in Askalon, an israeli settlement. One has to wonder if the retribution will be to blow up an orchard as well. Probably not. We will start keeping a table on the blog with the hits, injuries, and deaths on both sides as this ridiculous farce continues.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel stepped up pressure Wednesday on Hamas militants who launched improved, longer range rockets into the heart of a major Israeli city, authorizing the army to enter populated areas in northern Gaza.

Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers entered one of Israel's former settlements in northern Gaza Wednesday night and opened fire on a nearby Palestinian town, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the movement into northern Gaza.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened his Security Cabinet and met with top military officials after militants fired rockets on Tuesday into Ashkelon, a southern Israeli city of 110,000 people.

Militants fired more rockets into southern Israel Wednesday, hitting an orchard in Ashkelon and the town of Zikim near the Gaza border. No one was hurt in any of the attacks, but it was the first time rockets have penetrated so far into Israel, showing militants have improved the range of the primitive weapons.

The planned invasion threatened to be far bloodier than Israel's week-old offensive in the Gaza Strip aimed at freeing an abducted soldier held by Hamas-linked militants.

The movement by Israeli forces on Wednesday night into the abandoned settlement of Nissanit appeared to be part of that new offensive.

Israeli forces and settlers withdrew from Gaza nearly a year ago, destroying all 21 Jewish settlements.

An AP reporter in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya said five Israeli tanks, followed by armored personnel carriers, were making their way very slowly into the old settlement. Two other tanks took up positions atop a nearby hill as bulldozers built sand embankments around them.

More and more it seems that Israel is using the captured corporal as an excuse for invading Gaza to exterminate the Hamas. Perhaps that is a good thing, at least from their eyes, but it also looks more like others in history who have simply decided they are right, and everyone else that stands in their way is wrong. Perhaps it is time to stop making false promises of peace, and actually negotiate with Hamas and others--with a goal of peaceful co-existence.

The following from Reuters is an update to previous stories in this blog.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi (Reuters)

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel warned the governing Palestinian faction Hamas that the "sky will fall on them" if they harm a captured soldier after a deadline passed on Tuesday for the Jewish state to accept a prisoner exchange.

While Israeli tanks and infantry massed along the Gaza Strip's northern border for a threatened ground incursion, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the campaign to free Corporal Gilad Shalit could turn into "a long war".

Three Palestinian factions, among them the Hamas armed wing, pulled out of negotiations with Egyptian mediators trying to end the standoff over Shalit, a Hamas political leader said.

Israel rejected the 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) ultimatum set by the factions, which demanded that the Jewish state free 1,000 prisoners in exchange for Shalit.

But Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas called on the factions to return to the negotiating table, putting himself at odds with militants who said further discussions over Shalit's fate were out of the question.

Haniyeh, whom Israel has hinted could be targeted for assassination, also urged militants to keep Shalit alive.

The factions had warned Israel that it will "bear full responsibility for future consequences" if their prisoner swap demands were not met.

Israel has given the army a green light to launch a deeper incursion into northern Gaza, though there was no indication when it might begin, the Maariv newspaper reported. Continued...

The following article appeared in the Jerusalem Post on July 5, 2006

Switzerland said Monday that Israel has been violating international law in its Gaza offensive by heavy destruction and endangering civilians in acts of collective punishment banned under the Geneva conventions on the conduct of warfare. "A number of actions by the Israeli defense forces in their offensive against the Gaza Strip have violated the principle of proportionality and are to be seen as forms of collective punishment, which is forbidden," the Swiss Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"There is no doubt that Israel has not taken the precautions required of it in international law to protect the civilian population and infrastructure," it said. The statement did not name the Geneva Conventions, but it referred to provisions of the 1949 treaty, which is regarded as the cornerstone of international law on the obligations of warring and occupying powers.

Switzerland, as the depository of the conventions, has a responsibility to call meetings if it finds general problems with the implementation of the treaty, but it does not have any special powers to interpret the document.

The crisis in Gaza deepened today after Palestinian militants set demands for the release of prisoners and Israel continued its assault on Gaza to free the abducted soldier. Palestinian militant groups that abducted an Israeli soldier gave Israel less than 24 hours today to meet their demands for the release of Palestinian prisoners, threatening unspecified consequences if it refuses.

"The Zionist enemy is still being stubborn, and is originally refusing to give anything in return of releasing the soldier at first and then was talking about releasing the number they (Israel) see fit at a time they see fit and the Palestinian resistance can not accept that. The situation must be clear and precise and at the very least they need to release, in the first stage, the children and women prisoners in Israeli jails," Osama Al-Muzaini, a Hamas political leader, said.

Hours before the latest communique, Israeli tanks and armoured bulldozers pushed into the northern Gaza Strip in what an Israeli military source described as a "pin-point operation" to locate tunnels and explosives near the border fence. - Reuters

* Demands Israel stop military activity in Gaza and West Bank* Abbas preparing plans to tighten security at Gaza crossing

GAZA: The Hamas government wants a ceasefire with Israel and is willing to ask Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets from Gaza into the Jewish state, a spokesman said on Thursday.

But Ghazi Hamad said Israel had to first stop military activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Islamic militant group scrapped a 16-month truce with Israel last Friday and soon after launched a barrage of makeshift rockets at the Jewish state from Gaza.

“I spoke today with the prime minister and he said we definitely want quiet everywhere. We are interested in a ceasefire everywhere,” Hamad, speaking in Hebrew, said in an interview on Israel Radio.

Reached by Reuters, Hamad said the offer was conditional.

“We are ready to launch discussions with factions over stopping rocket firing but only if there is an Israeli commitment to cease all military attacks against all Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Hamad’s remarks followed a sharp drop in militant rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials were not available to comment but the Jewish state regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation and along with the United States and the European Union has imposed an economic embargo on the new government.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has accused Israel of engaging in state terrorism as the families of those killed in an air attack on Tuesday were mourning their dead.

Israel carried out a missile air strike on a van in Gaza carrying resistance fighters and rockets. The attack killed 11 Palestinians, nine of them civilians, and wounded about 30 in the deadliest such attack in nearly four years.

Abbas said: "What Israel is doing is called state terrorism. This state terrorism will not shake us."

The Hamas-controlled cabinet condemned the "ugly massacres" and the armed wing of the ruling Islamists separately threatened to avenge the deaths with further rocket attacks on Israeli territory.

Dr Jumaa al-Saqqa, a spokesman for al-Shifa hospital, told Aljazeera that a number of Palestinians were also wounded in the strike in Salah al-Din Street, the main road through the coastal strip.

HUMAN rights investigators are calling for an independent international inquiry after the Israeli Army cleared itself of any involvement in an explosion that killed eight people on a Gaza beach last Friday.

The call from the Human Rights Watch group came hours after 11 Palestinians - two Islamic Jihad militants plus nine civilians, including two children and several medical workers - had been killed when an Israeli missile struck a crowd in a busy Gaza City street.

"Internal investigations by the Israel Defence Forces have generally fallen short of international standards for thorough and impartial investigations and have rarely uncovered the truth or held to account the perpetrators of violations," a statement from the New York-based rights group said.

The deaths of at least 17 Palestinian civilians in five days have caused a sharp deterioration in the political and security situation.

The military wing of the new Palestinian ruling party, Hamas, cancelled its 16-month-old self-imposed ceasefire after Friday's incident, which survivors blamed on Israeli artillery shells that were falling in the area at the time.

Televised scenes of 12-year-old Huda Ghalia hysterically searching for her dead family on the blood-stained beach caused an international wave of revulsion and initially shocked public opinion in Israel.

Jerusalem -- Israel and the Palestinians edged closer to open warfare Tuesday after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City killed at least eight people.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the attack as "state terror" and accused Israel of trying to "wipe out the Palestinian people." Later, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz expressed his regrets that civilians had been killed.

But no statement of regret is likely to cool passions. In the past week, Israel has stepped up attacks on the Gaza Strip; Hamas has ended its 16-month cease-fire with the Jewish nation, and Palestinian infighting is threatening to spark a civil war.

The rising tensions prompted an independent research center to warn that the conflict was heading toward a "catastrophic breakdown."

A report by the International Crisis Group said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was "one tragic step ... from all-out chaos" and that "all players must urgently revise their policies."

"Palestinians are inching towards civil war; Israelis and Palestinians are perilously close to resuming all-out hostilities, and the international community is depriving the Palestinian Authority of vital assistance," the report said.

As you have seen in these pages, and others, over the past several weeks, there is increasing tension among factions in the arab world; Fatah against Hamas; Hezbollah activity in Lebanon; increaseing Syrian involvement in exporting terorism to countries throughout the Middle East; and increasing hostility by established Arab-led governments to their activities. Many are beginning to question the advent of an internal civil war among the arab communities, and even begin to assess what such a situation would mean to the fragility in the area.

So far, it would seem that both Jordan and Egypt continue to resent the use of their territory for terrorist-sponsored activities, or the recruiting of their nationals to the effort. They remain committted to mainstream arab goals, such as autonomy for Palestine, but do not want to have the arab world seen simply as a breeding ground for extremist activity. They, and the other leaders want peace in the region, even at the cost of recognition of their main enemy, Israel, with whom some nowl ive in relative calm. That peace has helped their economies, and meant that what was formerly large military dollars in the annual budget can now be better applied to other domestic programs.

The question of Palestinian Homeland, however, is not going to go away. Both Fatah and Hamas are deeply involved in making that claim a reality. They have dramatically different ideas, however, on how to make the reality happen. Their internal battles have the potential for real harm to the process. How that rivalry for leadership evolves remains to be seen.

This is an opportunity for the blog community to comment on their thoughts on the process, and what they see as the future.

Washington Times Online May 25, 2006

In the wake of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's visit to Washington, press attention continues to focus almost entirely on the latest chapter in a story that began with Hamas' creation nearly 19 years ago: the terrorist organization's conflict with Israel. But the mainstream media thus far has largely overlooked another story, one which doesn't fit the ordinary paradigm of Arab vs. Jew: the fact that Hamas' relations with Jordan are worsening, and the same may be about to occur with Egypt. Two recent events deserve considerably more attention then they have been receiving thus far: Jordan's announcement last month that it had uncovered a Syrian-backed Hamas plot to attack the kingdom; and Egypt's announcement on Tuesday that the terrorists who carried out the April 24 bombings that killed 24 people in Dahab, a Sinai resort town trained for the operation in Gaza. Hamas' most serious problem is with Jordan, where security forces last month arrested 20 of its members. Amman accuses Hamas of smuggling detonators, rocket launchers and explosives into the country from Syria, and of attempting to recruit Jordanians to send to Iran and Syria for "military training." Authorities said they believe that Hamas was planning attacks against unspecified targets in Jordan. "The foiled plots by Hamas elements against officials and installations in Jordan were in the final stages of execution," Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Joudeh said. "Interrogations of suspects proved that they received instructions from a Hamas leader...who is now in Syria."

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he will call a national referendum on accepting a Palestinian state alongside Israel if Hamas does not agree to the idea within 10 days.

Abbas' surprise announcement was a political gamble that could either help resolve the Palestinians' internal deadlock or lead them into a deeper crisis with the militant Hamas group.

Such a vote would effectively ask Palestinians to give implicit recognition to Israel by accepting a Palestinian state on land occupied by Israel in 1967. Approval of the 18-point plan would provide a way out of the impasse over acceptance of Israel, which has led to an international freeze on aid to the Hamas-led government.

Hamas officials were divided over the idea of a referendum, with several giving their blessing, but others dismissing it as an attempt to undercut the Hamas-led government.

Haniya says term ‘civil war’ does not appear in Palestinian vocabulary despite fighting between Hamas and Fatah.

By Adel Zaanoun - GAZA CITY , May 23, 2006

Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya on Tuesday rubbished any prospect of civil war amid fighting that has dragged his Hamas faction into a deadly power struggle with the once ruling Fatah party.

"The term civil war does not appear in the Palestinian vocabulary," he told journalists after talks with various faction representatives in Gaza City.

"I assure all the Palestinian people that we are capable of overcoming these events," said Haniya, whose government has become embroiled in deadly clashes with Fatah-dominated security officers and faces a crippling Western boycott.

Fighting between a new Hamas paramilitary force and security officers in broad daylight near the parliament building in Gaza on Monday killed a Jordanian diplomatic driver and wounded nine Palestinians.

GAZA, May 23 (Xinhua) May 23, 2006 -- A U.S. humanitarian group warned on Tuesday of a looming humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip due to Israel's siege and the West's cutoff of crucial aid.

Mercy Corps warned at a news conference in Gaza City that the humanitarian and health situation in the Gaza Strip would further deteriorate if the political and economic blockades on the Palestinians continued.

The group blamed the aid cutoff and border closings by Israel for the deepening crisis in the desert coastal strip, saying that the Israeli sealing of Gaza "significantly curtailed critical export revenues and imports of food and other goods."

The group also stressed the necessity to take appropriate measures to confront what it described as a tragedy in the Gaza Strip and appealed to the international community to improve the situation.

Key donors, including the United States and the European Union,have cut off direct aid to the Palestinian government led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) since the Islamic group,winning the January legislative polls, took the reins of the Palestinian administration in late March.

Hamas has refused to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and honor previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements.

Egyptian diplomats and security officials who are based in the Gaza Strip spent more than six hours on Wednesday night trying to persuade Hamas and Fatah leaders to work toward preventing an all-out confrontation between the two parties.

The leaders of the two parties were summoned to an urgent meeting at the home of a top Egyptian diplomat in Gaza City, where they were told that Cairo was "extremely worried" that the Palestinian territories were rapidly plunging into civil war. The meeting was held shortly after the Hamas cabinet deployed hundreds of militiamen belonging to a new security force in various parts of the Gaza Strip.

The new force, called the Support Unit, consists largely of members of Hamas's armed wing, Izzaddin al-Kassam, and the Popular Resistance Committees, an alliance of various armed groups, including dissident Palestinian Authority security officers.

Muslims and Jews: Common Ground

May 9, 2006

VIA WASHINGTON POSTIt's been often noted that a key reason for the intractability of the conflict between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East is that both sides operate with a mutually exclusive set of assumptions about the history of the dispute.

Jews view the state of Israel as the triumph of a dispossessed people who waited 2,000 years for a return to their homeland. If violence has accompanied that return, it is solely because of Arab intransigence; Jews were willing to settle peacefully among their Arab neighbors, but the latter were hostile to a sovereign Jewish entity in the Middle East and declared war against it from its inception. LINK

Top Israeli Security Official at University of Haifa: PA Could Easily Crush Islamic Jihad If It Wanted

HAIFA. December 7—"If it really wanted to, the Palestinian Authority could quickly and easily do away with the Islamic Jihad."

Gen. (Res.) Amos Gilad, who heads the Israeli Ministry of Defense's Policy-Security Division, gave this assessment yesterday at the University of Haifa's National Security Studies Center. He added that the terrorist organization lacked any political value on the Palestinian street.

Referring to Iran, the security expert noted that both Israel and the world at large "have lost precious time in dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue," which has been of concern since the mid-1990s. Then, he continued, "the winds of peace were blowing around the world, Khatami seemed to offer great promise in the West. The difficulty for the intelligence level was to convince the political level of the seriousness of the issue of the Iranian atom."

Gilad also stated that charges that the Egyptians supported terror "do not pass the test of reality."

The peace between Egyptian, Jordan, and Israel exists, he said, commenting that its supreme importance was in preventing terrorist incidents. "It serves as a barrier against al-Quaida."

He told his University of Haifa audience that Israel's strategic-economic situation was currently good because "no hostile coalition confronts us."

Israel accepts resumption of aid to Palestinians

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel accepted on Wednesday a decision by major Middle East peace brokers to resume some aid payments to the Palestinians -- a move that could ease intense economic pressure on the Hamas-led government.

The Quartet of international mediators -- the United States, Russia, European Union and the United Nations -- agreed on Tuesday to create the new mechanism for funneling funds to the Palestinians and will run it for a three-month trial period.

The Hamas-led government said it appreciated the Quartet's efforts to ease the burden on the Palestinian people but said they could have gone further, and in a statement criticized the fact that its own authority was likely to be bypassed.

"We were hoping that their decision could be more positive in dealing with the Palestinian government since it is an elected government that represents the Palestinian people."

The move follows fears expressed by some Quartet members that more pressure on the Hamas-led administration could cause the Palestinian government to collapse, unleashing a deeper humanitarian and security crisis in the West Bank and Gaza.

It was not clear how the mechanism -- yet to be worked out -- would function, but it was expected to effectively bypass the Hamas-dominated government and channel funds through the office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas instead.

The clash comes a day after three people were killed in a similar street battle near Khan Younis.

Friction between the rival factions has been increasing since January's elections, when Hamas took control of the Palestinian legislature, which Fatah had dominated for years.

Each side offered its own version of what led to Tuesday's violence near a house in downtown Gaza where a top Fatah activist, Samir Masharawi, was staying.

Masharawi's bodyguards and Hamas gunmen fired at each other, Fatah said. One Hamas member was wounded.

After the initial volleys, dozens of armed men from both factions streamed to the scene. Sporadic gun battles followed, leaving eight people wounded, including five children between the ages of eight and 14 who were caught in the crossfire while trying to get to school, said Fatah.

Hamas's version of events began with Masharawi's bodyguards kidnapping three members of Hamas's military wing. The Hamas gunmen then went to the house to free them, Hamas said.

Masharawi denied the claims and accused Hamas of kidnapping a Fatah member.

Israel Offers Outline to Divide Jerusalem

JERUSALEM -- Israel's new government has outlined the clearest picture yet of how it plans to divide the holy city of Jerusalem and abandon much of the West Bank in its move to separate from the Palestinians.

Otniel Schneller _ an architect of the plan _ said in interviews this week with The Associated Press that his blueprint would give most of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods to the Palestinians while keeping the predominantly Jewish areas for Israel.

"Those same neighborhoods will, in my assessment, be central to the makeup of the Palestinian capital ... al-Quds," Schneller said, calling Jerusalem by its Arabic name. "We will not divide Jerusalem, we will share it."

The question of the day is...Are the palestinians really ready for their destiny? This AP Piece really begins to question that.

Chaos, Lawlessness Plague Gaza Strip

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: September 16, 2005

Filed at 2:20 p.m. ET

JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The Gaza withdrawal is earning Israel rare accolades -- with several Muslim countries opening a line to the Jewish state -- and a renewed peace process looks more likely now than at any time in the past five years.

But chaos after the Israeli military pullout this week is raising serious questions about the Palestinian Authority's ability to assert control. If Gaza remains lawless, the potential payoffs -- renewed peace talks, economic reconstruction, revived hopes for statehood -- will be threatened.

Palestinian officials chalk up the mayhem at the Egyptian border, the looting of prized greenhouses and the renewed displays by militants to the release of frustration pent up during 38 years of harsh Israeli occupation.

So far the Palestinian leadership's promises to restore order have fallen short. Palestinian officials pledged to seal the Egyptian border, but people have been crossing daily. They promised to rein in gunmen, but Hamas drew its largest crowd ever this week, with tens of thousands of people, many of them armed and masked, converging on Gaza City's main square.

Hamas is competing with the Palestinian Authority for control of Gaza. If Gaza becomes a terrorist haven, further Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank would be less likely, with Israeli hard-liners bolstered by Gaza's chaos.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking before the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, made his clearest statement in support of Palestinian statehood, but said ''now it is the Palestinians' turn to prove their desire for peace'' by restraining militants and eliminating what he called the ''anarchic regime of armed gangs.''

The Gaza pullout is fast reshaping Mideast peace prospects after five years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. The Muslim nations of Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia all held high-level public meetings with Israel in the past two weeks -- diplomatic rewards for the withdrawal that some believe could be a prelude to better times.

Success in Gaza could give a big boost to Palestinian aspirations for statehood, if Palestinians show they are capable of imposing order. But to be stable Gaza must be less isolated, and to be less isolated it must restrain extremists, because Israel won't allow open borders if gunmen and weapons pass through them.

This dynamic helps explain the alarm over what's happened at the Rafah crossing at the Gaza-Egypt border, where thousands of people have crossed this week despite an Israeli-Egyptian deal in which Egypt was supposed to deploy 750 border troops to ensure order.

In a recent interview with The Associate Press, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas promised ''one authority, one legitimate gun, one law.'' But does he have the power to rein in militants?

Palestinian policemen stood by helplessly as looters carted off irrigation hoses, water pumps and plastic sheeting from former Israeli greenhouses that American Jewish donors bought and transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

And police did nothing when militants blew up a section of an Israeli-built border wall to make it easier for people to reach Egypt.

Outlining the Palestinians' most detailed plans yet to restore order, Rafiq Husseini, Abbas' top aide, said the Palestinian Authority would ask all armed groups to disband after parliamentary elections in January. By next week, Husseini said, all gunmen affiliated with the ruling Fatah movement will be absorbed into the security forces.

But Palestinian officials continue to say they will disarm the militants through persuasion, not force -- a tall order given the militants' insistence on keeping their guns. Scores of masked Islamic Jihad fighters paraded their weapons at the abandoned Jewish settlement of Netzarim this week, waving flags atop the remnants of a synagogue torched by militants a day earlier.